Can Restaurants in India Legally Serve Beef?

A dish of grilled beef tenderloin at the Golden Globes Awards in California, Jan. 6, 2011.

Several states in India are ramping up legislation to protect cows, and maybe even buffaloes, in many cases making it harder to buy or sell their meat.

And yet it’s increasingly common to find restaurant menus in major Indian cities that feature dishes described as “tenderloin” or “filet mignon.” But what is this mystery meat? And is it even legal for it to be on the menu?

That’s hard to say even though there’s no national law banning the slaughter of cows or the sale and eating of beef. And no state laws explicitly ban beef from being eaten either.

But the two dozen local laws enacted to protect cows across India – in which the age, gender and even geographic origin of the animal all come into play – do make it pretty difficult for restaurants to legally source, store or serve beef.

“I still haven’t been able to figure out what is what myself even after three years of running a restaurant,” said Satish Warier, of the Delhi-based restaurant Gunpowder, which serves dishes typical of several southern Indian states, including Kerala, where beef is commonly served. At Gunpowder, those dishes are served with buffalo meat instead, as a nod to Hindu sentiment, which particularly in the north of the country frowns on eating beef from cows.

In Delhi, a 1994 law banned the slaughter of cows, calves, bulls and bullocks – but not buffalo. The 1994 ban appears to restrict Delhi restaurants from serving beef at all – even if the meat has been slaughtered somewhere where it is legal to do so, say Kerala or Australia, since it says that “no person shall have in his possession the flesh of agricultural cattle slaughtered outside Delhi.” That makes it kind of difficult to sell it or cook it.

In Punjab and Haryana, which have nearly identical legislation on this since they were one state until 1966, the law appears to be slightly more lenient. In these states, the sale of beef from cows and bulls is banned – but that “does not include flesh of cow contained in sealed containers and imported.”

So as long as a restaurant in those states can prove its meat has been brought into the state from somewhere else, it can serve not just buff but beef. (Haryana and Punjab law also excuses the killing of cows “by accident or in self defence,” not that that’s pertinent to restaurants.)

In Gujarat, unsurprisingly, killing cows and bulls is totally banned and it’s illegal to possess the meat of these animals with no exception for imports.

In West Bengal, meanwhile, it’s okay to slaughter cows, bulls and buffaloes over the age of 14 – and therefore legal to sell and serve that meat.

In Karnataka, where it’s common to find beef in Bangalore restaurants, it’s fine to slaughter bulls – but not cows — as long as they’re over the age of 12. A new piece of legislation is attempting to change that however, making it illegal to sell any kind of beef in the state.

“It’s such a rampant product that’s sold all over Bangalore,” said the manager of a Mediterranean restaurant in that city, whose establishment serves beef from cows. “I’d be surprised if they could get it off the menu.”

The restaurant manager also said that most beef sourced within India was likely be from an animal that was a dozen or even 15 years old – compared to three to four years or younger in the United States. But he said that was slowly changing.

“There are some reliable suppliers – very few — who give you better quality, slightly younger stock,” he said. “They’re very hush-hush about it.”

Hands down, it’s Kerala that is India’s most beef-friendly state. There is no state legislation banning cow slaughter, “beef fry” is a beloved dish that is available at roadside stalls, and resorts market both their ayurvedic spa treatments and their beef dishes.

Anup Surendranath, a doctoral student of law at Oxford who blogged recently about beef laws upon realizing that his home state, Karnataka, planned to out-do Gujarat with new super-strict legislation, says that some aspects of India’s beef laws are so broad they could be open to legal challenge.

In particular, Mr. Surendranath suggested that banning the possession of beef with no exceptions for meat imported from another state or country is on weak legal footing, given that these state laws are supposed to be guided by agricultural science. Although religious sentiment drives the enactment of these laws, Article 48 of India’s 1950 Constitution directs states to protect the cow as part of the effort to “organize agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines.”

“That would be a very weak argument to say people should not eat beef from other states to protect cows in your own state. If you’re protecting it as furthering animal husbandry, the source of the meat is crucial,” said Mr. Surendranath. “I could import from the United States or whatever. In that sense, I am not affecting any cow in India.”

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.